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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22872520">Screw the Roses</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ginger_angel/pseuds/ginger_angel'>ginger_angel</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>What Are The Chances? 'verse [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Captain America (Movies), MCU, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020, Bucky Barnes Bingo prompt, Captain America Steve Rogers, Captain America Steve Rogers/Modern Bucky Barnes, Dating, M/M, No Angst, Steve's there to make it all better, grumpy!Bucky, nurse!bucky, pure fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 07:49:13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,185</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22872520</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ginger_angel/pseuds/ginger_angel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky is having one of those no good, very bad days.  He's about ready to just give up, go to bed, and start over tomorrow.  Except his boyfriend/not-boyfriend, one Captain America Steve Rogers, has magically appeared to make it all better.  Bucky's so happy that he could almost cry.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>What Are The Chances? 'verse [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1590076</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>205</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Screw the Roses</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The Bucky Barnes Bingo crew is having a fluffathon this week.  Since all I seem to write is fluff, this turns out to be the perfect week for me to practice my craft!  Today's prompt was red, rain, and roses.  I managed to fit them all in this fic.    </p>
<p>You don't have to read the prior parts of this series - it's pretty much standalone.  But you might like them if you haven't already devoured them.  They're fluffy too.</p>
<p>Please enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Screw this day,” Bucky says as he trudges home from the subway stop a few blocks from his apartment.  “Screw this day, screw the weather, screw my job, screw Wednesdays, screw Valentine’s Day, screw all of it!”  He frowns as he realizes that his voice is getting progressively louder with each step he takes towards home.  Well screw that too.  If strangers on the street want to judge him for having a bad day, he doesn’t really care.  It isn’t like he’ll ever run into them again. Probably.</p>
<p>Today hadn’t started out all that bad.  He had a short shift at the hospital so he was able to sleep in past 5 am.  He also stopped by his favorite coffee shop where they were giving out heart shaped shortbread cookies for free with every order.  Sure it was Valentine’s Day and the guy he is currently dating, who he may or may not call his boyfriend in his head, is out of the country avenging.  So he won’t be spending their first Valentine’s Day together.  Who cares?  Except Bucky does kinda care.  He’s about to say screw Captain America, but he feels bad because it isn’t really Steve’s fault that the Avengers were called out just before February 14<sup>th</sup>.</p>
<p>The day started to go downhill as soon as he got to work.  Wednesday’s aren’t usually too bad at the hospital, but then there had been a really bad pile up during rush hour and the ER had been slammed with patients. Why couldn’t he have been on the kid’s ward rotation today? </p>
<p>When he had finally left the hospital two hours after his shift supposedly ended, he was tired and ready to just fall into bed as soon as he got home, except then the skies had opened up and started dumping cold rain on him.  No big deal, it rained all the time in February.  Except Bucky hadn’t brough his rain coat with him when he left the house today because the stupid weatherman said it wasn’t going to rain.    He’d thrown on a heavy sweater (one of Steve’s – bless the man for leaving the sweater at his house when he came for dinner a few weeks ago) and called it good.  You know what?  Screw the weatherman too.  Now he'll have to "borrow" another one of Steve's sweaters because this one won't smell like him anymore.</p>
<p>So here he is angrily stomping his way home looking like a drowned rat while being weighed down by a heavy wool sweater that will now smell like a musty sheep instead of like Captain America, wondering if he should just skip dinner because he doesn’t want to screw up take out because screw cooking too when he feels like this. </p>
<p>The first idea he has that his day is about to get a whole lot better is the look he gets from Mrs. Johnson when he holds the door open for her and her ugly dog as they leave the building on their daily walk.  It’s knowing and sly but also sweet.  His eyes track her as she walks down the block, but then he shakes his head and starts stomping up the stairs. </p>
<p>The second is the noise he hears from his apartment as he makes it to the fourth floor landing.  He knows he didn’t leave the radio on when he left this morning, but now he can hear the brassy horns of the Harry James Orchestra coming from behind his apartment door.  He knows it isn’t Becca; she’s got class on Wednesdays until at least 7 and it’s only half past 5 now.  Plus Becca doesn’t listen to big band music.  However, the only person Bucky knows that listens to that stuff is currently on foreign soil.</p>
<p>But as Bucky opens the front door, he realizes his apartment is not empty and his (not)boyfriend is currently standing at the stove stirring something that smells delicious.  It is at this moment that his stomach decides to give a large growl alerting the gorgeous cultural icon in his kitchen to his arrival.</p>
<p>“Bucky!” Steve turns with a giant smile on his face that quickly falls as he takes in Bucky’s appearance.  “Oh honey, what happened to you today?”  Steve quickly walks over to where Bucky is standing stock still in the open doorway.  He quickly takes Bucky’s backpack from over his shoulder and hustles him into the living room where Bucky has just noticed a couple of things.  There is a large vase of red roses on the coffee table.  Bucky looks back and forth from the vase to Steve’s face and sees that Steve is starting to turn as red as the roses that he apparently bought for Bucky. </p>
<p>“I, uh, well…” Steve scratches the back of his head as he struggles to continue.  It is at this point that Bucky notices that possibly every blanket he owns is also piled on the couch almost like a nest.   He fully turns to Steve and buries his head in his neck.  Bucky is trying not to cry and he’s not really succeeding. </p>
<p>“I have had the shittiest day, Steve,” Bucky sniffles into Steve’s shirt.  Steve is rubbing his warm hands up and down Bucky’s back. </p>
<p>“Yeah, kinda seems like it,” Steve agrees.  “I know I didn’t tell you I was coming, but I did call Becca and arrange to get your spare key from her.  I thought you might like the surprise of not having to worry about dinner.  When I stopped at the bodega around the block to grab some cheese, the lady there told me I couldn’t show up at my best guy’s house on Valentine’s Day without roses.  Personally, I think she was just trying to con me out of twenty bucks, but I knew there was a chance they would put a smile on your face.  I didn’t think they would make you cry.”  He kisses the top of Bucky’s head as Bucky laughs wetly.</p>
<p>“Screw the roses, punk.”  Bucky pulls back and smiles.  “You’re the best present a guy could hope for after the craptastic day I’ve had.  And ‘best guy’?  Is that what I am?”  He pokes Steve in the chest before backing up and pulling the sweater over his head.  He tosses it in front of the door and will put it in the dirty laundry basket later.  His pants have mostly dried out so he won’t worry about taking those off just yet.</p>
<p>“Jerk.  You’d better know that’s what you are.”  Steve pushes Bucky towards the couch and turns back to the kitchen.  “Now sit your ass down and cuddle up with those blankets.  I’ll grab us some grub and I’ll let you pick a movie for us to watch.”  For the second time in just a few minutes, Bucky finds himself ready to cry.  Steve is here in his apartment cooking him dinner, buying him roses, making him a blanket nest, and ceding the movie picking rights to him tonight.  He’ll go easy on Steve, he thinks, as he pulls up the Netflix menu.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>How did I do?  Was it kudos/comment worthy?  Please drop me a note to tell me what you thought.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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